Auth by DIGEST

[Tridib Samanta]

 

All data between the client and the server is encrypted.

Is the above statement true when you are using DISEST? The answer says it's false. But, according to the servlet spec

Like HTTP Basic Authentication, HTTP Digest Authentication authenticates a user
based on a username and a password. However the authentication is performed by
transmitting the password in an encrypted form which is much more secure than the
simple base64 encoding used by Basic Authentication,

 

[Nitesh Kant]

i dont think "all" the data between client and server is encrypted. Digest auth just doesnt pass the password as clear text/base64encoded. Quoting the purpose of Digest access authentication as per Section 3.1.1 of RFC 2617

The protocol referred to as "HTTP/1.0" includes the specification for
a Basic Access Authentication scheme[1]. That scheme is not
considered to be a secure method of user authentication, as the user
name and password are passed over the network in an unencrypted form.
This section provides the specification for a scheme that does not
send the password in cleartext, referred to as "Digest Access
Authentication".

The Digest Access Authentication scheme is not intended to be a
complete answer to the need for security in the World Wide Web. This
scheme provides no encryption of message content. The intent is
simply to create an access authentication method that avoids the most
serious flaws of Basic authentication.

This link contains the RFC

[Tridib Samanta]

Thanks Nitesh!